


Don't Do Love Confessions in Trees

by certifiedgarbage



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: 'what are you an acorn' line, Fourth of July fic, M/M, Modern AU, a bunch pf deh references, background sprace, crap ton of background newsies, crutchie and davey conspire to be the two responsible mom friends for the guys, crutchie is the little shit that ships everyone together, i only got two more hours till july fifth but fuck it i ain't waiting another year to publish this, javid - Freeform, like he sets up javid and forces them together, loosely based off of DEH but it's javid and gayer and actuallly real in that universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-23 16:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11406480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certifiedgarbage/pseuds/certifiedgarbage
Summary: Davey Jacobs has no absolutely idea what to expect while spending the Fourth of July with the rest of the guys, especially since his crush on Jack is really obvious according to Crutchie (it's not). Crutchie is determined to make his Javid ship sail and become real-life cannon and if it takes forcing Jack his own feelings to Davey at the top of a 70 ft. tree, then so be it even though Davey may pass out. Will he pass out from the confession or his deathly fear of heights? Or is it his inability to climb trees? No one knows.





	Don't Do Love Confessions in Trees

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is really late to the Fourth of July thing since currently, I got less than two hours till it's July 5th but screw I wrote this much in two days AND I AM NOT WAITING ANOTHER YEAR TO PUBLISH THIS.

Davey wasn’t used to this.

Sure he had his fair share of 4th of July barbeques with his family but with family friends? Only once in a while. With friends whom he had met just a couple months prior and was now going to hang out with in a random park in New York? Now this was a first.

He shouldered his grocery bag full of various drinks and beer. This was his first time with the guys with any major (if you can call the 4th of July major) and Davey really didn’t know what to expect.

Do they like alcohol? Well Spot sure did but what about the rest of them? Is Independence Day supposed to be a sober holiday? Were half of them even old enough to drink?

“Hey Davey!”

Davey whipped his head towards where he heard his name and saw Jack racing towards him with a grin on his face. He could see that Jack was wearing a red , white, and blue tank top that was…fairly revealing of his muscles to say the least, not that Davey was noticing of course.

“Hi Jack”, he said, smiling sweetly back at him. Jack was really cute, alright. That didn’t mean that Davey necessarily _liked_ him contrary to what Sarah and Kath told him when they said that he was ‘pining’ over the boy. The way Davey thought about it, he wasn’t pining.

Davey liked to observe. And he had observed how adorable Jack looked whenever he smiled in a way that always curved up a corner of his lip and made Davey feel warm inside. Nothing was going on, right?

The two walked back to where the rest of the group was, near the picnic tables in a clearing just out of the forest of trees.

Specs was losing horribly in an arm wrestling match with Spot while Romeo and Race egged on their boyfriends, Crutchie was desperately trying to shoo the wasps and flies away from the food on the picnic tables.

Sniper had managed to climb a tree and do a back flip off one of the branches, Jojo had sat down with his phone out to record Sniper’s failure. Albert was perched near Crutchie on the table already asleep, and Henry and Finch had resorted to aiming small pebbles at Mike and Ike while on a tree branch.

“Guys, Davey’s here!” Jack shouted at the group. All of the boys turned their heads to look at the newcomer and wave excitedly. Davey held up the bag with the case of beer sheepishly only to be met with hoots and hollers of thanks and approval.

Alright, so that was certain: they’re all potential alcoholics.

As Jack ran off to join the newly started game of football, Davey came over the tables and set down the drinks. “Hey, Crutchie”, he greeted the short boy and sat down next to him on the bench.

“Hi, Davey!” Crutchie said happily. “So, are you excited? Spending your first holiday with the guys and all?”

Davey bit his lip hesitantly, unsure what to say. “Well, I really don’t know what to expect so not knowing is kinda making me nervous and all.”

Crutchie chuckled, sounding impossibly warm and friendly. How he always sounded so happy was something Davey would never know; Esther always told him to be happier and make more friends but that never worked out. “Just be careful after they’ve had a few drinks, okay? I made all of them promise to limit their alcohol intake this year but just in case. They can get a bit rowdy.”

Davey’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Like ‘violent’ rowdy?”

“Wait what, no! No, no, I didn’t mean it in like the ‘hitting people’ rowdy”, Crutchie assured him, “just rowdy ‘cause of the fact that Specs likes to do excessive pirouettes everywhere when he gets tipsy, Sniper likes to climb trees when he’s drunk so that never ends well, Race and Spot can get really clingy to everybody, and the twins just somehow disappear. The last time that happened, we couldn’t find them for two hours. And Jack? Jack just starts to sing a lot.”

“Somehow, that comforts me but at the same time, it really doesn’t.”

“Don’t worry, Davey. You’ll get used to us soon.” He patted Davey’s back sympathetically. “So how’s your crush on Jack going?”

“It’s nonexistent, for one.”

“That’s what they all say.”

 

-

 

The two spent the next hour talking everything. New York versus Davey’s home state of Ohio, food, tips on being mom-friends for the rest of the boys, Crutchie’s insistence that Davey had feelings for Jack…everything.

After a while, the sun had begun to set, filling the now orange sky with purple and pink-tinted clouds. Albert had finally managed to spark a bonfire in one of the park’s fire pits much to frustration and many, many attempts from Henry and Mike.”

“Hey Crutchie?” Davey asked tentatively. “What time do the fireworks start? ‘Cause I get kinda jumpy round them all the, um, loud noises and all that just in case so I don’t freak out when they go off.”

“I think ‘round 9? And if you get scared, you can just hold Jack’s hand. I know he really, _really_ won’t mind.” He leaned back and held his hands up in a defensive manner, trying to hold back giggles as Davey blushed red and started trying to stammer out a retort.

“And speak of the devil”, Crutchie smirked seeing Jack jog towards the pair. He was slightly sweaty with his hair all windswept and ruffled and looking all pretty and holy crap, maybe Crutchie was right on his crush for Jack, Davey thought.

“You two talkin’ ‘bout me?” Jack joked after taking a deep swig from his water bottle.

“No”, Davey blurted out. Was he being an unreasonable person for not confessing his feelings for Jack and suppressing all of his emotions? Yes but that’s what Sarah did with Kath and that ended in the two getting engaged so it can’t be that bad, right?

Crutchie merely shrugged while keeping his knowing smirk at a minimum and away from Jack’s eyes. Davey glanced at him suspiciously. Is setting up people part of the mom-friend agenda? “Jack, why don’t you show Davey the view? Like the tree one you found a couple years back?”

Oh yeah, it totally was.

Jack’s eyes lit up and it seemed a light bulb had secretly gone off over his head. Without a word, he took Davey’s hand in his own and ran off into the maze of trees, dragging the taller boy behind him. Davey looked behind his shoulder and saw Crutchie laughing at him.

He flashed Crutchie a glare and a middle finger with his free hand that wasn’t in Jack’s paint-streaked one. He responded Davey with a middle finger of his own. That little bitch of a ray of sunshine.

At last after what seemed to be an eternity of running, Jack stopped at the base of a large and tall tree. Davey estimated it to be, what? 70 feet tall?

“C’mon, Davey”, jack prompted as he leapt onto a branch and swung onto a higher one. How did he do that? Who was he? Tarzan?

Davey stared at the ground nervously, his foot starting to tap rapidly on the mossy floor. “Uh, Jack? I don’t know how to climb trees. And I’m really scared of heights. This isn’t gonna work out well.”

Jack froze for a second before jumping back down to a lower branch to reach his hand out for Davey t o grab. “Sorry, I didn’t know”, he chuckled sheepishly. “Just take my hand and I’ll pull you up on this part. Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall. Promise.”

Well, okay then.

With little hesitation, Davey grabbed Jack’s hand tightly and managed to pull himself onto the first branch six feet off the ground. His heart rate rose a little out of fear but it was fine; Jack had promised him. And he trusted Jack.

“Now from here, it’s really easy”, Jack told him, his voice warm and kind. “Just one foot after the other, one branch then to another okay? You’ll do fine.”

“The only exercise I ever get is running away from my problems so I don’t know about that”, Davey grunted as he pulled himself up to a high branch and put his foot onto another one to climb up, lungs already hurting and heaving from exhaustion.

“I am way too out of shape for thi – woAH!” Davey’s foot slipped off the branch under his foot as it gave way.

Jack grabbed his arm as quick as lightening and set him on another one before Davey could fall more than he already had. “As Rose Bukater has once said, I will never let go.”

“Yeah, she said that and then she let Jack Dawson drift down to the bottom of the ocean”, Davey retorted sarcastically as he tried to find a sturdier branch to set his weight on. “And I didn’t think that you’d be the type to watch ‘Titanic’. That’s kinda more of Romeo’s thing, right?”

“Every year on Romeo’s birthday, he forces everybody to watch it with him so I think I have the whole script of the movie down by now.”

“Really? Oh FUC-“ The branch that Davey grabbed on to snapped, making him lose balance and leaving Jack less than a second to grab him by the back of his shirt collar as Davey dangled forty feet above the ground.

He again pulled him up onto a sturdier branch and flicked Davey’s forehead. “What’re you doin’?! You wanna bust you head open?” he yelled worriedly full of fear for the other boy’s safety.

“No, I wanna go down.”

“We’ll be down there soon enough! And Sarah will _murder_ me if I let you get hurt!” Jack shuddered at the thought of what would happen if Sarah and Kath got their hands on him. He knew that Sarah was naturally protective of Davey being her younger brother but Kath would go berserk to help her former girlfriend/now fiancée. “C’mon, we got more than halfway up. I we hurry we might have time to climb down and catch the fireworks with the guys!”

For the remaining thirty feet up in the tree, Davey had nearly fallen down no less than 5 times during their climb. And every time, Jack was able to catch him by some limb or the collar of his neck which was usually followed by a brief lecture of chastising on Jack’s [art on being more careful.

By the time the climb was over, Jack Kelly had never been more stressed in his life.

 

-

 

“Oh thank God it’s over.” Davey’s chest heaved, racking with tired breaths. He leaned his head onto the large branch and closed his eyes as he clung to it tightly, afraid of looking down.

Davey knew that they were high up; the breeze was a lot stronger and colder and they had just spent nearly an hour climbing. Of course, half of that hour was Jack keeping him from falling tens of feet towards the ground usually followed with a minor freak-out and a lot of chastising on Jack’s part.

“You did good, Davey but open them pretty blue eyes. I think the climb was worth the view”, he heard Jack chuckle. “And relax a bit, would ya? I promised that you ain’t gonna fall on my watch.”

Ugh. Fine.

He slowly opened one eye then the other. It was gorgeous, really. Davey’s clutch on the tree loosed as he gazed at the sea of green and at the sun peaking over the Manhattan skyline as it nearly disappeared.

The orange sky had already begun to fade completely into a dark blue, almost black night that was speckled with stars. All of the skyscrapers loomed in the background like a dark silhouette for one of Jack’s paintings of the city.

When Davey looked across the canopy of leaves and branches and onwards at the small picnic clearing, he could make out two figures on their backs on the grass holding each other and pointing up at the sky; Romeo and Specs probably? It couldn’t be Race and Spot, the most vulnerable affection they would allow themselves to show in public was fiercely making out. The rest of the moving dots that he could see were just a bunch of flailing limbs; a cart wheeling contest maybe?

“Pretty, ain’t it?” Jack murmured wistfully. Davey met his eyes and they were glazed with contentment and some sort of nostalgic look. “Santa Fe looks exactly like this, ya know. Less buildings, though, and more orange”, he continued, eyes still fixed on the horizon.

“You ever been to Santa Fe before?” Davey asked. What is with Jack and Santa Fe? Only five months and he had already memorized his ‘Go West, Young Man’ dream. Literally everybody who has spent any amount of time with Jack had.

Jack shook his head, the sun’s light bouncing off of his wavy brown hair, making it seem golden. “I tried leaving once, didn’t work. New York’s got me, hook, line and sinker. Can’t even stay away from this city even if I left.”

The two stayed silent for a while, their legs swinging back and forth as they dangled from a sturdy branch. Davey took a deep breath from the wind that whipped around him. It was both figuratively and literally a breath of fresh air away from the city life. Before his mind could drift off again, Davey realized that it was getting dark.

“C’mon, Jack.” He carefully stood up on trembling legs and balanced his feet on the branch. “The sun’s leaving and we should get down now if we want to catch some of the fireworks with the guys.”

“Can we stay up here for just a couple more minutes, Dave? I need to say something and Crutchie told me to take you here to tell you and I thought that you’d be more comfortable if it wasn’t in front of all the guys…” Jack smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. His cheeks began to turn slightly pink, something he usually caused other people to do.

Davey’s eyebrows furrowed. “Jack, is there something wrong?”

“NO. No, everything’s fine, everything’s okay”, he quickly blurted, his cheeks getting redder with every word. “Uh, wow, is just me or is it getting warm up here?”

“It’s summer, Jackie, of course it’s warm.”

Jack’s chuckles turned more and more frantic. “Look, Dave. I’m not good with words so this is really hard...but that’s nothing new! Still, I have to try to explain what I’m feeling for you.”

“Wait, what?”

“David Jacob- waIT DAVEY CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN JUST TRY TO BREATHE I DON’T WANT YOU TO PASS OUT FROM HYPERVENTILATING AT THE TOP OF A TREE. You okay?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay then, I’m gonna try this again.” Jack took a deep breath to calm himself down. This was harder than he thought it’d be. “David Jacobs, I wanted to write to you and tell you the way I feel but I’m better with a brush than with a pen. I used to be only happy when I’m set in front of a canvas but now I don’t care if I ever paint again. You’re the only piece of luck that’s come my way and I am in love with you, Davey. I know this feeling all too well but I believe in fate. I am absolutely smitten and if you’ll take me, I’ll never let you go.”

“…”

“Davey, say something please.”

“…Did Crutchie set you up for this since he knew that I wouldn’t make the first move?”

“Yeah.”

Jack took Davey’s hands in his own. “I’m assuming that that’s a ‘yes’?” he asked hopefully.

Davey answered with a swoop forward, taking Jack’s lips in his own. It was quick and sweet, just like the person who started it. He broke the kiss and looked at Jack. The other boy had frozen solid in shock, eyes wide open and mouth still slightly parted.

“Oh, fuck, sorry Jack. I, I thought that it was okay and -”

“You know you could tell a guy to actually prepare himself for what’s he’s been dreaming to do for a couple months now!” Jack busted out in laughter and doubled over as much as standing on a tree branch could allow. “It’s alright, Davey”, he smiled. “You wanna try that again?”

Davey nodded. Both Jack and him leaned towards each other slowly, nervous of the tricky dance of relationship they were about to begin but even more excited for the actual dance itself.

 

_PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW_

Davey yelped and flinched at the sudden firework, losing his already loose footing on the branch he was standing on. “DAVEY”, Jack screamed his name as his new boyfriend tumbled through the tangle of branches down, down, down until he heard a loud thud at the bottom.

Heart thumping wildly, Jack swung down from tens of feet of branches until he reached the bottom one and leapt off. He saw Davey lying still as a stone on the floor with his knees curled up to his chest and ran to him, the rush making him nearly trip over himself.

“DAVEY, Davey, Dave…You okay? Wait, what the fuck am I saying, you’re definitely not okay, you just fell seventy feet through the air from a tree, of course you’re not okay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought you up there, this is all my fault -”

“Jack, I’m fine”, Davey got up from his fetal position with tears in his eyes. He hugged Jack tightly with one of his arms; the other one, he had curled up to his chest at an odd angle. “My arm just looks kinda weird, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Jack clutched Davey’s hand from the arm that was uninjured. He liked to hold Davey’s hand. It made him feel safe and warm and wanted.

“We gotta get you to the hospital”, he finally said and lifted Davey up in his arms bridal style.

“Only my arm is broken, Jackie, I can still walk just fine.”

“ _We gotta get you to a hospital_.” Jack’s grip on him tightened, ignoring his complaints that Jack’s processing of anatomical injuries was very wrong and how broken arms don’t mean broken legs.

 

-

 

“Hey Spot, Davey and I are back and we need to borrow your car. Davey broke his arm and I need to get him to the hospital to get it checked out.”

“What the fuck, Kelly? How’d he break his arm?”

“He got surprised by a firework and fell out of a tree.”

_"What are you, Jacobs? An acorn?"_

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, you have made it through my horrible writing. Yes, towards the ending, it does seem really bad since I was rushing and have given up on this fic and on life in general so apologies. Anyways, please leave a kudos or a comment because I am really lonely and I need validation. You don't have to but please? Thank you regardless. DFTBA and a have good day to all!


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